Tag: style

It’s been awhile since I did a What I Wore Wednesday. Frankly, it’s not even out of laziness, I just think they are… well, effing boring. Same shit, different day. I can promise you with the exception of the last time I wrote a What I Wore Wednesday, I have worn tall dark boots, black skinnies, some flowy-ish shirt, and a peacoat. That’s it. Today though, I actually really like my outfit. I got to play around a bit more since the snow has melted down enough that a person can mostly walk on pavement and we shouldn’t get another friggin blizzard until at least tomorrow. I seized the chance to wear something other than the same two pairs of boots I’ve alternated between since October (September?…). Yay. Go me. So anyway, here’s my outfit of the day. It’s my perfect mix of Pacific Northwestern, trendy, casual but still able to get away with for work, comfortable, lesbianish and (I think) cute.

My update is out of date, but here you go. I’ve had oil slick hair in the exact rainbowy-dark look I wanted for a whole week now. It’s not the purple-blue-teal only kind of oil slick. It’s truly oil slick colored. Bright and dark and vibrant and subdued in all the right places with every color of spilled oil on a parking lot.

The stylist laid out all the beautiful colors before we even started the lightening process. Red, orange, gold, green, teal, blue, purple and even various hues of each. She had me pick and approve each color she prepped. I loved how involved I was, and the time she took carefully selecting and mixing each color. She used Joico color and, a week later, I am still delighted with how bold the color is. After all, family pics are getting closer and closer. 😀

From start to finish, the whole coloring process took about 3 hours. I have short hair, obviously, but also really fine hair, so don’t consider that an average by any means. Going into this, I truly expected to have Shannon, the stylist, just lighten the hair and then color each little section different colors. And perhaps, some stylists might approach it that way, but not this gal! Each section was a work of art. She labored over each tiny section. Each bit was colored in a way that would flow nicely with whatever color it was falling beside or falling over. Better still, each colored section was not just one color. The pieces were artfully painted as one color melting into another. The royal blue fades into mermaid blue, red into copper, purple into fuchsia. It was mesmerizing to watch her work. Initially, I was planning to have her cut it much shorter than I ended up going, but after my hair was so beautiful colored, I wanted more of it there. I actually told her it was making me sad to see such pretty colors just falling to the ground to be swept up. 😀

I can honestly say that today was the very first day I washed my hair since i got it done (Tuesday). I want to take super good care of my hair and with it being a bit shorter, I haven’t really even styled it either. It’s just a bit of protective spray, blow dry and some texturizing powder. I bought new Joico color care conditioner and “wash” my hair with that and cold water only on the days I do anything and the color hasn’t seemed to change. Lighting make it look more vivid, so differences in photos is almost exclusively due to how good my lighting is. Fun fact: I got it at TJ Maxx for about half price. Score!

I seriously love my hair color. The cut is pretty symetical so I can part it on either side, or really style it however. Up, curly, straight, wavy, messy, whatevs. Each way brings out different colors. If I part on the left, the tones are more muted. Right part amps up the color and really brings out the bold, royal and mermaid blues. I’ve always been nervous to use punk or vivid colors, because I wasn’t sure I could pull off being profesh enough with so many older, conservative clients. But look at me, over here with all the colors of the rainbow in my hair and everyone, bosses and clients included are loving it.

If you guys aren’t super in love with oil slick hair, I have to assume it’s because you just haven’t seen it. I mean, to be fair, neither have I. At least not in real life. But I’ve gone on Pinterest and drooled a lot and I’m pretty sure that counts. It’s dark hair that is beautiful and edgy and glam and funky all at the same time. It seems to work on many shades of brunette and any length. It can be super vibrant or quite subtle and each way I’ve seen it, it look fantastic. I give you proof:

See? I told ya. ALL gorgeous. I tend to love the more golden ones like the color in the top left image. Soooo pretty. And guess what? Almost never have I really splurged on my own hair. There was this one time when I was going to, but she couldn’t get it as light as I wanted for the look I wanted, so I splurged on the halfway point (I was a pretty cool bronde) and then DIYed the rest of the way to blonde. And even the few times I do go to lovely salons and get nice cuts and colors, rarely is it really me. At best I go home and make it bigger and crazier in some way. Never is it as bold of a move as I intended to make. Each, time I really wanna say, “Now you listen up, betch, I’ve been obsessing and pinning this shit for 7 1/2 months. If I say I want bold, teal peekaboo highlights or for the back to fade all the way to a one, I swear to god I absolutely mean it.” But still, they go darker or lighter or longer or whatever, but always more timid than my dreams.

Not this time. I have found my girl. Again, I don’t actually know her in anyway. But I know the owner of her salon and that’s something. And I stalk her hair facebook page. And look. Just look. She does a pretty damn awesome oil slick pixie. Again, I would want some warmer tones blended in, but this is just glorious. So I’m gonna do the thing. I’m really gonna book an appointment and get the hair I want. I think a girl deserves to splurge on her hair at least every few years, right?

Click to check out Curly Sue’s facebook page.

And better still, Terra and I are getting photos done with the littles next month, so even if the vivid colors only last me a couple weeks, I’ll always have proof of that one time I was a total cool girl.

It has been raining at least a little every single day for an entire month. I’m sure of it. Yesterday the sun broke through and it wasn’t even super rainy or freezing when I left for work. I allowed myself some white after Labor Day and I didn’t even wear boots today. Oh, AND, I totally took my coat off at several points through out the day.

My new life and new home came with more than just “big city living.” It’s friggin’ cold. My new job maintains a business casual vibe and I can even get away with jeans a couple times a week. Thank gawd. Jeans are much warmer than dress pants. 🙂 My work wear look has been lots of neutrals and lots of layers.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! My daughter has been counting down to this day for weeks. I’m not really sure why, because in all honesty, we do almost nothing different from any other day. I know lots of the cool moms kick off the day with green pancakes and green milk or even green eggs and ham before dressing their miniatures in adorable leprechaun garb. I managed to find mine some green shirts and poured them some Lucky Charms.I know, I KNOW. I was NEVER gonna feed my kids that god awful sugar+corn syrup+artificial flavors and coloring cereals, but the box was like throw-back cool and the marshmallows were seasonally ALL green clovers. (Shamrocks?) Update: They are both still alive. I’ll feed ’em same kale for dinner.

Anyway, the day is here. Here’s my girl sporting her green.

The kids were supposed to be at their dad’s tonight, but he will be battling for the city league basketball championship (yes, that is a real thing) so I get my littles. We are gonna get all domesticated and make my favorite green velvet cupcakes.

Here’s the recipe if you feel like playing along. Really, it’s great recipe, just switch it to red (duh) if you prefer the classic, or play with any color for a super festive look. Or separate the batter and do all sorts of colors for a rainbow affair.

Around these parts the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day is pretty big deal. Our local main street America program has one of its more jolly fundraisers of the year: a pub crawl. That’s right, friends, I get to don some gay green apparel and drink to my heart’s content all in the name of community involvement and support. I’m actually not kidding. It’s one of the biggest money makers for the organization, and doesn’t take a huge investment on their part. You just walk around to and through our downtown bars with all your favorite homies, and the entry fee includes your cab ride home. Throughout the evening there are some games, prizes, snack, water and, of course, green beer and drink specials. Literally, what’s not to love. If you can’t tell, I’m rather excited.

GF’s last gf wasn’t me and didn’t really share my enthusiasm for the Pub Crawl so this is her very first time to go in the event’s 6 years of existence. I’m delighted to show her the ropes with so many of our favorite people.

All the straight girls are putting a lot of consideration into their outfits; cutting up their free t-shirts into sex kitten masterpieces, constructing poofy, matching tutus and *maybe* buying up every other green glittery hat, headband, and piece of jewelry they can find. That’s not exactly my style and the idea of maintaining a tutus for hours of drinking is my hell, but I figure I should begin putting together my own dyke-chic ensemble. This is what I came up with.

It’s perfect for tromping around rather buzzed up, but has my perfect mix of styles and has just a touch of festive rainbow. Hell, i may even wear rainbow socks too.

Posts navigation

Hello

Hi! I'm Laurel. I"m not exactly Carol Brady, but I am one of the moms of a big, blended family. I do my damn best to help keep the kids alive, nourished, and adjusted while trying to keep my own hair and style on point.

That may be where the similarities end, cuz I never saw ol' Carol take shots of whiskey or drop an eff bomb. Such is life. :)